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Jennifer Rubin over at Commentary makes the case.

Tom Campbell, who has zipped into the lead in early polls, is quite another story. During his time in the House, Campbell was one of the few Republicans with a consistent anti-Israel voting record. In 1999, he introduced an amendment to cut foreign aid to Israel. This amendment, titled the Campbell Amendment, was defeated overwhelmingly on the House floor by a vote of 13-414. In 1999, Campbell was one of just 24 House members to vote against a resolution expressing congressional opposition to the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. In 1997, Rep. Tom Campbell authored an amendment (also titled the Campbell Amendment) to cut foreign aid to Israel. The resolution failed 9-32 in committee. In 1990, Campbell was one of just 34 House members to vote against a resolution expressing support for Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.  The resolution passed the House 378-34. But Campbell has taken positions on more than just aid that have raised concerns about his views on Israel. As the Los Angeles Times reported in 2000, Campbell, in his losing race against Dianne Feinstein, “told numerous crowds–including Jewish groups–that he believes Palestinians are entitled to a homeland and that Jerusalem can be the capital of more than one nation.”

Watch for Carly Fiorina to emphasize her foreign policy differences with Campbell in the coming weeks.

And, where has Tom Campbell been the past few weeks? Besides having his internet flacks like Mindy Finn and Patrick Ruffini shilling for him on Twitter, he was a no show at the Republican Women’s Conference this past weekend (Fiorina and DeVore both addressed the group) and a no show over at Glenn Beck’s Show on Fox yesterday (both appeared).

One of these days, Tom is going to have to address the fact that he is actually in a race – or is that his strategy – HIDE from his liberal positions and hope name identification carries his candidacy?

Apparently the San Diego Union broke the 6 AM PST embargo on the poll. So, I will report it now.

A week after dropping his bid for governor and switching to the U.S. Senate race, former Rep. Tom Campbell has taken the lead in what is now a three-way Republican field, a new Field Poll shows.

The poll shows Campbell leading among likely voters in the June 8 Republican primary election with 30 percent to 25 percent for former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and 6 percent for Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Irvine. The remaining 39 percent were undecided.

The winner will face three-term Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer in November.

“It demonstrates the relative weakness of the Fiorina and DeVore candidacies up to this point,” said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo.

The GOP Senate race remains largely unfocused, even among the Republicans considered most likely to vote, according to the poll, which has a high margin of error.

The vast majority of Republican voters said they did not know enough about any of the candidates to have an opinion about them.

Republicans have a favorable opinion of Campbell at 26 percent to 11 percent, but 63 percent have no opinion at all. Likewise, Fiorina is regarded positively, 20 percent to 10 percent, but 70 percent have no opinion.

The most unknown quantity is DeVore, with 81 percent of the Republican primary voters having no opinion about him. Of those who do, 8 percent are favorable and 11 percent unfavorable.

Stay tuned, as I will have more later.

Bad news for Democrat California U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer from the Rasmussen polling folks this afternoon.

California Senator Barbara Boxer is now the latest Democratic incumbent to find herself in a tightening race for reelection.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely California voters finds Boxer with narrow leads over her three leading Republican challengers, including newcomer Tom Campbell.

As in much of the country, the story may turn in part on the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats, even though support for it is higher in California than nationally.

In California, 49% favor the health care plan, while 48% oppose it. But as in other states, the emotion is on the side of the opponents: Just 25% of California voters Strongly Favor the plan while 39% Strongly Oppose it.

Perhaps even more significantly, 55% of California voters rate the U.S. economy as poor, while just seven percent (7%) think it’s good or excellent. Golden State voters are evenly divided over whether the economy is improving: 36% say it’s getter better, while 35% say it’s getting worse. Twenty-five percent (25%) believe it’s staying about the same.

“Any incumbent who polls below 50% at this point in the season is considered potentially vulnerable,” noted Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. “However, vulnerable incumbents still have the power of their office and still have a decent chance of winning. The Democratic leaning political gravity of California will certainly give Senator Boxer a boost in that effort.”

Here are the poll results:

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is only behind by three points after having announced her candidacy in November 2009. Tom Campbell who until this week was running for California Governor and who has twice before run for the U.S. Senate is behind by 4 points. Chuck DeVore who has been running against Boxer for over a year trails by 6 points.

As Rasmussen points out, this polling is more about Boxer than it is the three GOP challengers. But, the significance of this poll is that for whatever reasons Boxer and the Democrats will have to spend her $6 million campaign war chest in order to defend this seat.

A clear advanatge goes to Carly Fiorina who has amassed campaign cash far in excess of her two competitors. There is little doubt that with a contested seat that she will be able to call upon her national Republican supporters to provide more. And, then there is also her substantial personal wealth which in a close race can always be called upon.

I attended the Conejo Valley Republican Woman candidate’s luncheon today where Carly Fiorina addressed the faithful. I will have more on this later, including my brief interview with Carly.

Stay tuned…….